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Too close to home

StepChange debt advice clients’ experiences of coerced debt.

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‘Too close to home’ is our latest policy report, exploring our debt advice clients’ experiences of coerced debt.

In 2024, we surveyed and interviewed our debt advice clients who had indicated they had experienced coerced debt. This research was complemented by national polling and a focus group with some of our debt advisors.

Our new report offers an initial exploration of the issue of coerced debt from a debt advice perspective, examining the experiences of victim-survivors, identifying barriers to good outcomes, and setting out next steps.

About the report

Our national polling finds that 3% of the UK adult population – 1.6 million people – has experienced coerced debt at the hands of a current or former, family member or friend in the last 12 months. We estimate that, among our clients, almost one in eight are impacted. Coerced debt is a form of economic abuse where the perpetrator coerces a victim-survivor into debt, for example by making them take out credit against their wishes.

Much work has been done to develop best practice guidance, through UK Finance’s Financial Abuse Code, and a clearer legal framework with the inclusion of coercive and controlling behaviour in the Serious Crime Act 2015 and of economic abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

Yet our new research confirms that there remains work to be done to support victim-survivors to achieve economic justice, by which we mean financial or legal remedies that support a victim-survivor to achieve economic safety and stability without having to pay the price for the abuser’s behaviour. This could be through debt write-off and credit file restoration.

Key findings:

The prevalence of coerced debt among the UK population and among our clients is significant

We estimate almost one in eight (12%) of our clients are impacted by coerced debt. Based on national YouGov polling, we estimate that 1.6 million UK adults have experienced coerced debt at the hands of a current or former partner, family member or friend in the last 12 months.


Coerced debt is closely associated with financial difficulty and debt problems

  • Among those who have experienced coerced debt, we estimate that almost a third (31%) are experiencing problem debt, while our figures indicate 17% of UK adults experiencing problem debt have experienced coerced debt in the last 12 months.
  • Almost two-thirds (62%) of victim-survivors affected by coerced debt report negative impacts, such as going without essentials to keep up with debt repayments, and are more likely to report severe indicators of financial difficulty than others experiencing problem debt.


Support for victim-survivors affected by coerced debt is patchy and inconsistent

  • The majority of people who had experienced coerced debts (58%) in the last 12 months did not seek help with their debts.
  • More respondents to our survey of clients reported unhelpful than helpful support from creditors and suppliers to which they owed debts.
  • Qualitative interviews with clients and debt advisors highlighted mixed experiences, including a lack of compassion, inconsistent practice and insufficient support for victim-survivors.

Victim-survivors rarely have coerced debt written-off. This is for multiple reasons, including low awareness, reluctance to disclose, and varying decisions by creditors

  • Our national polling indicates that 13% of those affected by coerced debt had any of these debts written off. The figure was 12% for our clients.
  • Write off goes a long way in victim-survivors achieving economic justice, so it is positive to see this being done to some extent, but without credit file restoration, a vital step is missing.

It is currently very difficult to access specialist support for coerced debts and economic abuse

A lack of a consistent approach to coerced debt means that victim-survivors may receive advice and support that is ill-suited to them, particularly when they lack awareness of the possible support available and/or do not disclose that they have experienced coerced debt.


Awareness and understanding of coerced debt and economic abuse among the general population is low

  • In national polling, 62% of people stated that they had never heard of the term economic abuse before.
  • 68% of people had never heard of the term coerced debt.

Among the general population, support for a principle of economic justice, including debt write-off and credit record restitution, is high

In national polling, when asked about a hypothetical situation involving coerced debt, the majority (67%) did not think the victim-survivor should be responsible for repaying the debts that had been accrued in her name.

What's next?

‘Too close to home’ welcomes and reiterates recommendations made by organisations including Surviving Economic Abuse, Refuge, and UK Finance, and seeks to build on the important work of these organisations.

These recommendations require collaboration led by government and across multiple sectors, including debt advice, to come together and improve outcomes for victim-survivors.

The following recommendations should be adopted:

  1. Alongside UK Finance and SEA, we are calling for the Government to convene a cross-government economic abuse taskforce, led by HM Treasury and the Home Office.
  2. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) should take steps to create a consistent, industry-wide approach to economic abuse and coerced debt.
  3. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), the FCA and wider stakeholders should support the continued roll out of the Economic Abuse Evidence Form (EAEF), devised by Money Advice Plus (MAP) and piloted in partnership with SEA, and its extension to non-financial services creditors.
  4. The rollout of the EAEF should be facilitated by work by government and MaPS to develop and commission sufficient specialist advice.
  5. The new Credit Information Governance Body and its precursor working groups should co-ordinate work on a credit restoration and repair framework for victim-survivors of economic abuse and coerced debt within its work to take forward the FCA Credit Information Market Study remedies.

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Want more information?

Email us to discuss our 'Too close to home' report at policy@stepchange.org